Americans, how long until you received your refund?

[cellfree]

I cancelled a March 29 cruise on March 14, still waiting, any more positive reports out there, glad your money showed up keywest1.

[keywest1]

2 hours ago, cellfree said:

I cancelled a March 29 cruise on March 14, still waiting, any more positive reports out there, glad your money showed up keywest1.

I was beginning to get worried, especially since I only got email confirmation for two cancellations.  I cancelled before final payment and only had deposits paid, so that might make a difference?  Hope yours shows up soon!

[GatorMomInNC]

I cancelled all the other portions of my European trip in May (cancelled with MSC on March 2nd).  Southwest immediately refunded me for domestic portion of my flight, even portions that are not normally refundable (early bird).  American Airlines and Disneyland Paris have refunded me.  Delta has refunded some but not all of my trip; Air France has send me acknowledging emails they are processing,  but not yet refunded my money.  But it has been less than 6 weeks for those people.  MSC...nothing and it has been THREE AND A HALF MONTHS. 

 

Last time I talked the them the new story was that it would be refunded 60 days after my cruise (which was set for June 20th) .   But now I see other people getting refunds that requested them after me I am going to call them again (when I have the stomach for it) and see what ***** and bull story they are giving out now.

[Cruising89143]

I checked in with MSC last week. Was told once again that it was up to sixty days after the sail date of the cruise. Was told that they were still working on April cruises. 🙄I asked why they didn’t update their website to reflect this policy. Was told that they had asked but it was ignored. I really do not know who or what to believe. 
 

I checked with my credit card company. The temporary credit is still there. MSC has two billing cycles to respond before more action is taken which will be me sending in my documents showing the refund due. At that point they will pull those charges from MSC. I told the MSC rep that I could be patient if they’re running behind but they need to up front and transparent on this. I know that she is stuck in the middle. It’s the executives at MSC who could care less about their guests. 

[BermudaBound2014]

On 5/30/2020 at 4:15 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

Applied for refund March 14

Original sail date: April 4th

Disputed charge with American Express on May 21

Received notice today (May 30th) that MSC will apply a credit on June 5th statement. Not sure if the message is from MSC themselves or American Express. I'm also unsure if that means ON June 5th or sometime during the June 5th billing cycle. Very strange. I'm not removing the dispute until I actually see the money has cleared.

 

 

Update June 14. Nothing has changed since I posted above. My credit card company still shows the dispute as pending. The amount of my cruise is still temporarily credited to my account. I think I am going to have to wait and see if the charge clears at the end of this billing cycle (July 4th) per the MSC message I posted above. This is a very odd way to handle a refund. 

[Bob7]

An update, Visa agreed May 14 to look into a chargeback, and on May 23 our card account showed a provisional credit for the amount MSC owed us. A bit later we got a letter from Visa saying MSC had 60 days to dispute the chargeback with Visa, and if there is no response from MSC by then the credit will be permanent, which is essentially the same as CruisingGator2 was told by her card.  If MSC contests the chareback Visa said it will contact us immediately with the info. Visa said they may ask for additional documentation from us to make their decision. Visa will also provide us with copies of any documents they used to make their decision.  I expect when Visa has a deadline they stick to it.

[NayRN]

It’s now over 60 calendar days since I cancelled my 8/29/2020 cruise PRIOR to my final payment date....although I had already made my final payment. I hope and pray that my money comes in soon - I don’t want to fight with my CC company.

[Roger88]

Americans, and princess passengers specifically (according to the threads on this forum) have received their refunds in 30-45 days. There were some ridiculous cases when they couldn't manage and still have not received the refund but I rather blame it on some technical issue with the system rather than companies not willing to issue the refund in general. So yeah, I think for the US  citizens it went just alright 

[petuniaflower]

Update..Canadian who booked thru a US TA..cancelled April 2 for May 23rd sailing..got the deposit back last week which was from many months ago..still no full refund though, even though its been 2.5 months.

[APDMOM]

Interesting thing...

 

Despite my resolution to book no more MSC cruises until we receive a refund, my husband talked me into booking Seaside for Thanksgiving.  We LOVE that ship (our all time favorite) and want to sail on her one more time before she leaves for Europe.  

 

Here is the interesting part:  We paid the $98 deposit for Seaside and got a refund of $98 the same day.  This could be a coincidence for another deposit MSC owed us... but maybe they compensate for what they owe us as we pay for other cruises??? just a speculative guess...

 

We are still waiting for refunds, but the first due date for a refund is not until 6/29 and 6/30.  Will report back. 🙂

[psantho]

Just wanted to share my experience.  Our 4/25 cruise was cancelled by MSC.  I submitted the Cruise Assurance form on 3/24 and received a message back regarding the refund being processed within 60 days.  I received my refund on my credit card on 6/2.  So, my refund took 70 actual days.

[petuniaflower]

22 hours ago, petuniaflower said:

Update..Canadian who booked thru a US TA..cancelled April 2 for May 23rd sailing..got the deposit back last week which was from many months ago..still no full refund though, even though its been 2.5 months.

Another update from me..posted today was a small refund (compared to what Im owed), assuming it was tax or something, as we didnt pre purchase anything??  I also put a call into our TA to give them an update and they contacted MSC said MSC have "escalated" the request for refunding the balance.

[TomC21]

On April 23rd I cancelled our November cruise on the Seaside. Today we received a full credit card refund of our deposit ($398). 

Tom

Edited June 15, 2020 by TomC21

[cellfree]

Good to hear some positive reports. A) I called MSC again today as last week I was told my request for a cancelled October cruise “went to escalation” and I have still heard nothing. B) Also my taxes, etc. from two March cruises have not been refunded yet, last week I was told these cases had moved to Accounting, have still not seen anything, now those cases have also “gone to escalation.” Such drama - what can we do but keep checking credit card from day to day!

[jstrutton]

All, well I'm done with MSC refund circus.  I gave them fair time and patience.  I submitted for our refund on 16 March and 31 March on two separate cruises.  As of today, it has been 91 days and no words except when I called and was given some random excuses.  I officially filed a dispute on our credit card for a reversal of charges for both cruises.  That should happen in the next two billing cycles (which might be 2 months), but even at that it will still probably beat MSC.  And if MSC happens to get off their butts and post my refund, then I can easily just cancel my dispute.  Either way, I feel like we get some resolution instead of just checking our credit card every day and hoping. 

 

Good luck to all the others.

[APDMOM]

3 hours ago, jstrutton said:

All, well I'm done with MSC refund circus.  I gave them fair time and patience.  I submitted for our refund on 16 March and 31 March on two separate cruises.  As of today, it has been 91 days and no words except when I called and was given some random excuses.  I officially filed a dispute on our credit card for a reversal of charges for both cruises.  That should happen in the next two billing cycles (which might be 2 months), but even at that it will still probably beat MSC.  And if MSC happens to get off their butts and post my refund, then I can easily just cancel my dispute.  Either way, I feel like we get some resolution instead of just checking our credit card every day and hoping. 

 

Good luck to all the others.

Just curious to know... what were the cruise dates?

[jstrutton]

4 hours ago, APDMOM said:

Just curious to know... what were the cruise dates?

March 23 from Miami (submitted refund request on 16 March). The second one was 10 May From Hamburg (submitted refund on 31 March). As noted we haven’t received anything from MSC except for the automated refund email which indicated we would get our refund within 60 days.  

[WonderMan3]

My cruise on May 2nd was announced as being cancelled on March 30th. The same day I filled out the form to apply for a refund. Got an email from MSC a short time later saying that it would take 60 days (not business days) to process. The 60 days passed at the end of May. I finally got around today (78 days after applying for refund) to filing a dispute with my credit card company Discover as I seen no signs of a refund pending. It was very easy to file the dispute and since I had documentation stating the 60 day refund turnaround time the agent expected that it should be processed with no issue. They said I should receive the credit back on my card within 3 days. Then MSC has 60 days to dispute it. I see no reason they would do that.

[Cruising89143]

45 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

My cruise on May 2nd was announced as being cancelled on March 30th. The same day I filled out the form to apply for a refund. Got an email from MSC a short time later saying that it would take 60 days (not business days) to process. The 60 days passed at the end of May. I finally got around today (78 days after applying for refund) to filing a dispute with my credit card company Discover as I seen no signs of a refund pending. It was very easy to file the dispute and since I had documentation stating the 60 day refund turnaround time the agent expected that it should be processed with no issue. They said I should receive the credit back on my card within 3 days. Then MSC has 60 days to dispute it. I see no reason they would do that.

 

Our situation sounds almost exactly the same. Chase issued a credit within twenty-four hours once I completed the dispute form. Was told that MSC had two billing cycles (basically sixty days) to respond or the credit becomes final. I will update once the dispute has been settled one way or the other. 

[8420PR]

18 hours ago, jstrutton said:

That should happen in the next two billing cycles (which might be 2 months), but even at that it will still probably beat MSC.  And if MSC happens to get off their butts and post my refund, then I can easily just cancel my dispute.  Either way, I feel like we get some resolution instead of just checking our credit card every day and hoping. 

 

Good luck to all the others.

Once the charge is disputed a 'well organised' company should not refund the charges, they instead need to follow the dispute procedure otherwise they risk refunding twice.  I'm not sure if MSC would qualify as well organised though, especially with different people from different countries working from home.

 

This shouldn't impact you though, as part of the dispute your bank will credit the charges to you immediately anyway.

Edited June 17, 2020 by 8420PR

[dexddd]

12 hours ago, jstrutton said:

March 23 from Miami (submitted refund request on 16 March). The second one was 10 May From Hamburg (submitted refund on 31 March). As noted we haven’t received anything from MSC except for the automated refund email which indicated we would get our refund within 60 days.  

We haven't either for a cancel on 3/21.  First notice said 60 days.  Then when TA called, 60-90.

 

Are they trying to see if they can be slower than NCL?  Even NCL has been processing refunds.

[dexddd]

1 hour ago, 8420PR said:

Once the charge is disputed a 'well organised' company should not refund the charges, they instead need to follow the dispute procedure otherwise they risk refunding twice.  I'm not sure if MSC would qualify as well organised though, especially with different people from different countries working from home.

 

This shouldn't impact you though, as part of the dispute your bank will credit the charges to you immediately anyway.

I would say they are well organized in holding onto many people's cash.   Not one person here reported getting any refund before roughly 60 days.  What were they doing those days, planning how long they could draw this out?

[phissy]

4 hours ago, dexddd said:

I would say they are well organized in holding onto many people's cash.   Not one person here reported getting any refund before roughly 60 days.  What were they doing those days, planning how long they could draw this out?

I am sure they were doing plenty of planning. Logistics of how to operate within the impact of the virus. Lots of pieces to shift around and it seems accounting was last priority.  Holding back on refunds seems to be priority now. Cash flow has to be the issue. Still waiting for ours.

[petuniaflower]

Refund received today after TA calling MSC Monday and it being "escalated"...cancelled beginning of April for May 23 sailing.

[Cruisergal1208]

Just heard that an "adjustment" was made on my request for refund on a cancelled April 18, 2020 cruise and it's taking 75 days.  Not sure of 75 days from when!!!!  I originally cancelled on 3/13 and was told it would be 60 days for refund.  I am definitely not giving MSC any more of my money till I see refunds of over $14K outstanding requests come back to me!!!!  Wish you all good luck with getting actual refunds of cash back on your credit card or however you paid.  FCC's are worthless to me for the next 2 years.